This isn't a victory. They will just be replaced with Trumpites.
Trumpite replacement candidates have been losing close congressional seats to Democratic challengers so this may open up some pathways to retaking a majority.
It's a risk though. Many people vote party line. It will depend a lot on what district or state the seat is in.
I'm not saying get complacent, but looking at the all the elections from 2020 on, it's less of a risk & more of a pattern.
Exactly. The ones that are closer to being moderate (there are currently no moderate Republicans in the house) are leaving. They're less crazy in general, so not only are there fewer Republicans to push back against the MAGA crowd, it leaves spots open to be filled by even crazier Republicans.
Yeah, I feel like the sinking ship is a "sane Republican party". We're just going to see more Boebert's, MTG's, and Jim Jordan's in Congress now, which will lead to even more dysfunction and gridlock.
The fact that there's even a debate to be had about whether it's a victory just shows how fucked up our system of government is—in this case, our electoral processes. Government policies in a democracy should be highly predictable based on what's popular with the voting-age public, but instead, the policy effects of something as minor as some people retiring are so unpredictable we may as well be trying to read the future in chicken entrails.
I think part of that reason is due to the fact that half of Congress has an arbitrarily capped headcount and we're no longer able to represent the popular opinions of the constituency. Last I checked, we should have something like 3x the representatives in the house that we have currently.
We also need to ditch the electoral college. There's no reason to have it any longer. We won a civil war that forced the South to start evolving beyond chattel slavery to prop up their economy, there's no need to continue with that farce.
The numbers I've seen are that if the House wasn't capped it would have around 10,000 members.
I agree with your points but I don't think they go far enough. Approval voting (or RCV) and proportional representation are needed.
Oh for sure, I've advocated for that for several years. Here in multinomah county, Oregon USA, we went with a version of RCV and our next election will be run that way. There's a lot of detractors, and while I personally would have preferred STAR voting, I think almost anything is better than FPTP.
You're right, I was off by a factor of 10 or so on the rep count.
Nice. Instead of staying to fight for America, they turn tail and run like the yellow bellied cunts they are.
How many years did they spend sweeping the ground ahead of Trump and his cronies to support them and bring us to where we are today - only to act like they are taking some principled stand in quitting now?
They made this bed.
What else you expect? If they legitimately try to govern or talk sensibly, they get primaried. The GOP is so completely broken, there's no point trying to hang in there.
"right now Washington DC is broken"
Oh Debbie, it's not Washington honey. It's one specific party that happens to reside currently.
Both can be true at the same time. The system itself is broken, and the fact that it allows fascists to gain so much traction is a symptom of that brokenness.
Easier to quit than actually try to fix what you broke in the first place.
why put themselves at risk confronting the problems in the party, when they can just leave, with their money and influence, and let the crazies run the nuthouse
So the bastards are quitting the machine they built after it got out of hand and are leaving it to be run by crazy bastards.
Yeah, but they'll be safe, because they were a Republican once, right? Right‽
Assholes rather flee than work with Democrats. Fucking trash
More importantly, flee rather than fight the crazy
The Moderates and old guard are leaving to be replaced by extreme right wing types.
There really aren't any moderates.
The moderates are the Democrats (on average). The majority of the Republican party supports treason so any that call themselves Republicans fall into that label as well.
I for one don’t think they are choosing to leave. I think they are being forced to leave. The GQP is holding Kompromat over their heads, and because they didn’t support Qult45 are being forced out, less all the evidences against them all come to light.
Fuck ‘em.
Now this is the Great Replacement theory I'm interested in. Soon, the right will only be Trump and his luddites.
Every Republican still in the House next year will be forced to run for reelection while possibly supporting a convicted felon at the head the GOP ticket. They will also have to say they believe the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
Anyone want to bet against that happening exactly that way?
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